ASSAULT CASE GOES TO HIGH COURT

Xui Peng, owner of a store in Atu’u, was arraigned in the High Court this week on charges of second degree assault and public peace disturbance on allegations he assaulted another Asian man late last month.

During the arraignment, the defendant entered a plea of not guilty through his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Joel Shiver who told the court the defendant wishes for an expedited jury trial.

According to the government’s case, the incident began when one of his workers and another Asian man from another store got into a fight. It’s alleged this fight, as a result damaged the cash register to the store in Atu’u where the fight occurred. The defendant was informed of the incident and that’s when he fetched a knife and went after the man who had fought with his employee.

According to the government’s case, Peng found the man he was looking for and challenged him to a fight. It’s alleged Peng broke the glass window to the store and went into the store and swore at the man who had fought with his employee.

Court filings say that the defendant was swearing at the man, and swung the knife at him, which caused a cut on the victim’s arm.

Peng was released on bail of $20,000. Prosecuting this matter is Assistant Attorney General, Tony Graf.

JENNIFER TOFAEONO’S CASE CONTINUED WITH NEGOTIATIONS ONGOING

The High Court heard earlier this week that negotiations are on-going between the Attorney General’s office and LBJ hospital’s former Business Manager Jennifer Tofaeono, who’s facing charges of tampering with evidence, stealing and embezzlement.

Tofaeono was in High Court for her pretrial conference, however the court was informed by Deputy Attorney General Mitzie Jessop they are going through the final stage of discovery that needs to be taken over to the defense for their review, while at the same time, they are negotiating the matter.

Chief Justice Michael Kruse granted the request for additional time and rescheduled this matter to be called on May 30, 2014. Tofaeono’s co-defendant in this case is Felise “Leesha” Toilolo.

Court filings say that the hospital’s former Finance Manager conducted an investigation in May 2013 into reports over the course of previous years, from May 2009 through June 2011, regarding credit cards that were being run on the LBJ credit card machines, and the receipts used to collect cash from LBJ cashiers.

The investigation found that receipts for certain credit cards belonging to different people and entities were not transferred into LBJ accounts but instead voided through the LBJ merchant machine, and the underlying amounts did not show up on the corresponding bank statements. However, the receipts were used to obtain cash from LBJ cashiers by Tofaeono and co-defendant Toilolo, despite their being voided.